The few, the proud, the unemployed...

So... yesterday sucked. The owner and CEO of our company came to our office, and told us all we were closed. We were in shock. 21 of us were "downsized" yesterday. In the long run, I think I got off kind of easy. I am young, I am fresh, I am recently out of college but have over a year's worth of job experience, and I can move. Quickly. I'll be moving home to my parents' house soon. My boss though, he was with the company for 28 years. This was the only job he ever had. He graduated college, started in sales, and worked his way up to management. Watching him cry yesterday was even harder than knowing I'd lost my job. He cried when I hugged him goodbye. He took all of his belongings yesterday, and won't be returning. He was an amazing boss. I owe him a lot. He put a lot of trust in a girl that was fresh out of college - he set me up in my own house to work, he promoted me and moved me to Augusta, when I sucked at sales here, he didn't fire me, but gave me another job in the company that was better suited to me, and he was proud of me. He treated me like one of his kids.

I was a total zombie for most of yesterday, and didn't sleep last night. I thankfully have insurance for another month, then I'm either paying for COBRA or going without. Going without probably will be best for me. I'm also glad I didn't buy a new car recently! No debt = good.

I've gotten lots of phone calls today from people that are concerned about me. It's not public knowledge yet in Augusta that we're closed, but it will be soon. Atlanta knows, and reps are starting to know. I've been putting my resume in at our competitors to see if I can get in there.

I'm looking at this as a blessing though. I'm ready to go home. I miss Atlanta. I miss my family and my friends. I can start riding again. I can reconnect with everyone I'd grown apart from. And... the best part... is I can find a job in design where I will have growth. I love IAW, and it is a great company, but I was pigeonholed in the Augusta branch until our lead designer left. The gameplan was that we would be busy enough in 2009 to sustain us both as design. Apparently not. I've been hypothesizing all day with coworkers and other unfortunates as to what happened, and we can't figure it out. Our branch was on track to bill $5 million this year. That's our biggest year in 7 years. We were doing great. Next year already at $1 million billed. We were expecting a good bit more growth next year. Same with the other branches. One coworker told me that she was told they are trying to close down the brick and mortar offices, and have more employees working from home. That makes sense - currently in place are three satellite employees who do everything from home, but are supported by the home office. This will severely cut overhead costs.

I'm going to call the Atlanta office tomorrow to see if they have a position available for me there. That would be the easiest thing for me. I have another opening in another company in my radar, and I emailed my resume and called this morning. I will follow up with them tomorrow, and another dealer as well. I'll survive this, I know it! But for now... I'll be collecting unemployment and surviving on ramen and pasta. Yeeehaw.

I need a boyfriend, just to do manly things.

Today is a good, lazy Sunday. I got up, watched Best Week Ever and The Soup while enjoying my morning coffee, and decided to run some errands. I went down to my car, and got in. Put the key in the ignition... turned the key... SCARY LOUD CLICKING NOISES. Like, whoa. I'd been having this starting issue with my car lately (read: the past two months, but I was ignoring it and hoping it'd go away) and some phantom electrical stuff. Like, my car seemed to think I was stealing it. Anyways, I try to turn the key a few times, just more scary clicking. I called Leigh to see if she'd take me somewhere to get a new battery... then decided to call my Daddy and see if that was really the problem. Like he can do anything, he's halfway across the state, but whatever. He goes into detail, telling me how to get the battery out, asking if I had the receipt for the old one (HAHAHAHAHA no), who changed the old one (the ex, who had all kinds of tools), and did I know how much it was gonna cost. I then decided to find someone with jumper cables to see if they could start it, and I'd just take it someplace to get it changed.

I start down the list in my cell phone, texting all the boys in Augusta who could maybe come help me. Hot Cop - no jumper cables. New Cop - at work. Harrod - lent his car to his roommate, and so it goes. Leigh and Brittany don't have them either, which would be super convenient, since they're a mile from my house. Leigh and I both then decided that Shannon or Jill would have them, since that just seems like something they'd do. I call Shannon, and she 1.) is near my apartment and 2.) has jumper cables! She and Jill come over, jump my car, and off we go to get a new battery. Yay! See, I don't need a man, I just need my lesbian friends to rescue me!

So I get a new (very expensive) battery, and all is good. Oh and that starting issue? Gone. The phantom electrical problems my car has (speaker issue, sometimes spitting out the ipod player, cd issues)? Gone. Now if fixing that obnoxious knock in the driver's side suspension could be this easy! I literally clapped and laughed each time I started the car today while running errands, because it turned over so easily!

Lazy Saturday...

I've about had it with this gas crisis we're facing in Georgia. I'm not sure what caused everyone to panic on Thursday, but that's when it seemed to go even further downhill. I was getting phone calls that every station had at line stretching down the road. Oh stellar. On Thursday I was on a quarter of a tank. I drive an Explorer (lovingly named the Exploder) that gets shitty mileage anyways. A quarter of a tank wasn't going to do much for me... maybe get me through to Monday, and that's only with going to work on Friday, and maybe out Friday night. I tried to get gas on the way home from work, but every station was out. Bags over the handles, .00 on the signs, nothing. I came home and called my parents... Atlanta has no gas either. My Mom said that the Z4 had a full tank, the Silver Sploder had half a tank, the SportTrac had half a tank, and the motorcycles had full tanks. They were better off than I was! I went to bed at 8:30 because I decided that hiding in my bed was better than thinking of the economy crashing, and being stuck at my house with no gas! I wonder if my boss will let us all work from home if we can't get there...

Anyways, on Friday I go to work, and it seems everyone else in the office also has a quarter of a tank. We all drive SUVs or vans so that we can lug furniture samples around to our customers. My boss (who is awesome) said we could leave and go sit in line at the Pilot truck stop a mile down the road from the office. I had an eye doctor appointment anyways, so I figured I'd stop there on the way back to work. After my appointment, I decided to sit in line. I pulled up and was only about ten cars from the pumps, if that. At first I was a little confused because the station had no price on the sign. I hoped I wasn't going to get to the pump, and find there was no gas, or it was $10 a gallon or something. Nope! I waited a total of 15 minutes (including filling my tank) for $3.89 a gallon. YAY!!!! Granted, it was still over $70 to fill my tank, but I have gas!

Here's where I have an issue with this though: the gas is clearly watered down. The pumps state that the gas contains 10% ethanol, which is fine. I always fill up at this station, I can get 320 miles to a tank before I get panicky and get more gas. Normally, it takes about 50 miles before the gas gauge moves below full. Not this tank... I've been roughly 40 miles, and I'm on 3/4 of a tank. GRRR! I'm not the only one this is happening to, either. Very smooth, gas companies. At least I didn't pay more than $4 a gallon, but still.

I've been hibernating in my house because I'm afraid to waste my gas, in case I can't get more for a while. At least my house is clean! I've been productive... I cleaned my closet out and need to take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, and recycle a bunch of magazines at work, and I've scrubbed a lot of stuff. And taken lots of naps.

My only other task for this week is to pick up my touch-up paint for my car. I'm not sure why, but someone keyed my car. Like, bad. I can't decide which is worse... that the car was keyed, or that someone is so mad at me they keyed my car. Ugh! Petty! I got it washed today, and after getting the cement from the road construction off (yes, this is the second time I've driven under a bridge and cement has dripped on my car), I found that they keyed my hood too. Not as bad as the fender, but still not pretty. They drew on the hood. A pretty little 5" diameter asterisk. WTF. Someone had to see that happen, you can't just walk past my car all non-chalant and make an asterisk. Good thing I have a friend who works on cars for a living, and he said he can touch it up and put some clear on it for me! I know it won't match entirely, but it will be better than the alternative!

My past year, in a nutshell!

Holy cow! It's been a year since I posted here! Nice! I'm posting again because in that year I moved from Athens, Georgia to Augusta, Georgia, and have had a LOT going on. Many boys, much drama, much excitement. I've got a cute two bedroom apartment on a pond, a great job, and I'm pretty content. I do say that sometimes I could rival Carrie Bradshaw in my adventures with boys though! In this year I've dated quite a few guys... and they all have nicknames so you can keep them straight.

The first was Clint. He didn't get a nickname, he didn't deserve it. We went on one date last December, and all was great, except he became super clingy after that. Lots of phone calls, lots of texts, lots of stalking. I had gotten out of a five year relationship not too long before that, and this was my first adventure back into the dating world. Uh, yeah. That worked out well. I told him to leave me alone. This is only relevant because I see him regularly out at the bars in Augusta, and he makes it a point to NOT COME TALK TO ME, but to stare, point, and get his friends to stare and point. Great.

The next was the Hot Cop. Oh Hot Cop, we had some good times. When we first met, it was awesome. We have so much in common, we get along well, we have the same sense of humor... and it went on like that for two weeks. We even went out for Valentine's day. Well, I start to get attached, and he decides that he isn't ready for a relationship. I understand. I was upset, but I understand.

After him (very soon after him) I met Knoxville, aka 33. He is 33, and lives in Knoxville (ha!). He also works for my company, and I was kinda nervous about that for a while. We started off casually, I'd go visit one weekend, he'd come visit me, all was good. Then he got super sketchy. He borrowed money from me, and I, like a dumbass, loaned it to him. He had every intention of giving it back, until he got into some trouble. He went to rehab, and now he's been signed to the UFC. I'm supposed to be getting a check this week, but we shall see. I'm not counting on it. We still talk, because I genuinely care about him.

However, before he and I broke up, the Hot Cop came back into my life... he called and we spend four hours on the phone discussing why he was better than Knoxville, and I should break up with Knoxville for him. He came over that night, and we discussed it further... and yeah. I broke up with Knoxville the next day. The next week, the Hot Cop started dating someone else. AWESOME.

I met through Hot Cop's friends two other guys. Thomson Cop and New Cop. Thomson Cop was an Iraqi War veteran, heavily tattooed, and pretty cool. He made a few immature moves on a couple of our dates, and that wasn't awesome. I haven't talked to him in a while, and I'm not sure why. I think he figured out that I was talking to A LOT of other guys. The New Cop was cool, he's got his masters degree, owns a house, loves his dog, and has big ambitions in life. The only issue is he was way way way too busy for me. Like, we saw each other two times in three months. But he still assumed we were dating. He'd call, make plans, then break them that day. It got old. Fast.

There was some overlap here, but in August I was out at a club here in Augusta. The Vue has ladies night on Fridays, where girls drink free. NICE. We go there, a lot. It's awesome! We are there one night, me, Leigh, Brittany, Jill, Shannon, Will, Amanda, and a few others. I had walked in and immediately saw this one guy who caught my eye. Tall, dark, handsome, well dressed, and tattooed. I started flirting, but not coming up to him. We all go to the VIP area and start dancing above the dance floor. I'm still keeping my eyes on him, and he had seen me. Eventually I come down from VIP, and he's waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. We start talking, dance, and hanging out. His name is Cass, he's 27, and asks me what I do. I tell him I'm a designer, and he was impressed. Then he asked what I thought he did. I already knew... he was army. The haircut gives it away. This goes on for most of the night. He and I go outside to talk, and Brittany comes out to "check him out". We eventually go back in, and he comes with me to VIP. Leigh checks him out. He and I exchange phone numbers, and we head outside with everyone at last call. We get out, and there's this heavily modded car sitting there with Lamborghini doors. Leigh and I both say "I know who I'm going home with!"... and this pisses Cass off. I wanted to check out the car, so I'm sitting in it. He tries to drag me out by my arm, and everyone gets mad. Brit says something to him, and that sets him off. Then he and the owner of the car get into it... and there was LOTS of yelling, screaming, and everyone scattered. I'm worried about getting Jill into the car and home, so we are leaving. Cass keeps calling my phone and yelling, so I handed it to everyone else. Everyone took a turn at telling him to go away, and we left.

Two weeks later, he texts me. I'd beent hinking about him, but I deleted his number (like a bitch). We start talking, and he apologizes, a lot. He said he was sorry, and we were all at fault. We were... I admit it. I was mean, so was he. Then I agree to have dinner with him that week on Friday. I actually had another date on Monday with Thomson Cop, which was fine, then another date on Tuesday with a different guy... Rockstar. I went on both, but couldn't stop thinking about Cass. I went to see Cass on Wednesday, and we just hit it off again. We spent every minute we could together after that. I knew he was leaving for Iraq soon, he had told me at the Vue that night. I didn't care, at first I thought it was just going to be a fling, and we'd chill and have fun. We both became very attached to each other, and we both fell in love. He apologized to all my friends, and everyone loved him. We had a great time. He thought he was going to be in Augusta until September 26th, but the army called him and said he was going to get on a plane September 12th at 4:30. They called him at 3:30. He had to get my car to me, and pack his stuff, and go to the airport... he called and said no. They switched it to Saturday, September 13th. We packed his things, went to Fort Gordon so he could clear Augusta, and came to my place. We went out for one last night, and laughed and cried all night. He was being sent to Colorado before Iraq. He was in Colorado for ten days, and was sent to Iraq yesterday.

I was miserable for the first few days, and cried my eyes out. I'm still upset, but I'm looking at it positively! If we want it to work, it will. I look at my friends who did the LDR for long periods of time... Kelly and Lincoln, Kellyn and Ryan... and see that they're happy and married. Cass and I aren't ready for that yet, but we are going to talk every day, email, and I'm going to send him presents to make his time there better. We're going to just go with it, make no plans, and see where we end up.

In the meantime, New Cop has come back, and he realized he was not paying attention to me. I tell him about Cass, and he understands. We are still friends, and we're going from there.

Hot Cop, however, is like the devil here to tempt me. He knows we still have chemistry... and who calls me the day after Cass leaves? Hot Cop. Who do I see at the club on Friday, after not seeing him since July? Hot Cop. Damn.

It was funny, that within 24 hours of Cass leaving Augusta, three exes called me. Three exes I thought I wasn't going to hear from either. I joke that there was this "Eileen is hurting" alarm that went out, and they called to make it feel worse!